


Late Bloomers

by orphan_account



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Sgrub Session, Alternia-Focused, Ashen Romance | Auspistice, Baking, British English, Dark Comedy, Detectives, F/F, F/M, Flushed Romance | Matesprits, Inspired by Pushing Daisies, Mortality, Multi, Murder, Murder Mystery, No Sex, Orphans, Pale Romance | Moirallegiance, Pale-Red Vacillation, Resurrection, Romantic Comedy, Teen Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-20
Updated: 2016-07-20
Packaged: 2018-07-23 23:05:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7483509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As a child, Karkat Vantas discovered that he could bring the dead back to life. He now makes a living solving homicide cases alongside budding legislacerator Terezi Pyrope, asking victims to name their killers. When the duo look into the murder of Nepeta Leijon, an old friend and admirer, Karkat decides to keep her alive. If the two ever touch again, however, she will die for good.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Late Bloomers

**Author's Note:**

> Have you ever had the urge to combine two of your favourite things in spite of how incompatible they might seem? In some cases, such as chips and milkshake, it ends very well, whilst in others, such as caramelised onion and ice cream, it results in complete disaster.
> 
> With any luck, this work will turn out to be one of the former.
> 
> Anyway, this story borrows a lot from ~~the sixth best television programme of the noughties~~ _Pushing Daisies_ , including the basic premise and several key plot elements (but not _too_ many, don't worry). I chose not to categorise it under the _Pushing Daisies_ fandom, however, since the vast majority of the actual characters and locations within the story are either original or from _Homestuck_.
> 
> Enjoy,  
> ~ Georgie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> On an ordinary night in the Alternian district of Fée de Fer, young Karkat Vantas discovers that he possesses an extraordinary power. When he uses his abilities by mistake to disadvantage one of his friends, the lives of the two are changed forever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not entirely sure whether or not this chapter constitutes a prologue, but here it is regardless. Please don't hesitate to point out any problems with spelling, punctuation or grammar that you happen to spot. Many automatic proofreaders seem to have trouble detecting subject-verb disagreements and errors in tense, and the ellipsis is always a little bit bothersome.

Karkat Vantas was just five sweeps, six days and twelve minutes old when his lusus died.

The night upon which the tragic event occurred was ordinary, more or less. The sky was somewhat overcast, the air was still and the two moons of Alternia possessed enough gibbosity to facilitate adequate vision. As dawn had approached the quiet, suburban district of Fée de Fer, the piercing howls, caws and shrieks that originated from the nearby woodland had grown few and far between. Moreover, the majority of local young trolls, who were preoccupied with preparing to go to sleep for the day, made little to no sound. The result was near-perfect silence.

Positioned by his open mealblock window, Karkat looked out across his lawnring at the dismal collection of hives that surrounded his own. As acrid thoughts of his cantankerous and narcissistic neighbours drifted through his head like decaying leaves upon a polluted river, he began to glower. Not a single interaction between him and one of them had ever amounted to something other than a heated altercation, which, he supposed, was why he had developed such a fondness for communicating with others via chat clients. After all, it was much harder to get into a violent confrontation with someone when they were on the other side of a computer screen. Had his obnoxious hacker friend not put his desktop out of commission earlier that night, Karkat would no doubt have been bombarding a random member of his ChumpRoll with insults or romantic advice—or perhaps both—at that very moment.

With a long, resounding yawn, Karkat stretched, rubbed his eyes and allowed his acerbic mind to clear. He was soon pulled out of the brief period of tranquillity, however, by the soft, high-pitched and repeating sound of a cooking timer that had completed its job of counting down to zero. A slight smile appeared upon his face. He took a few paces to his left and lifted the crab-shaped timer off of the polished counter in front of him, silencing it with a press of the small button on its side.

Once he had placed the device back down, Karkat picked up the pair of aged oven gloves that sat next to it, which were bright red in colour, and slid them onto his hands with a deft, experienced movement. When he had been younger, he had always liked to imagine that they were the monstrous claws of some sort of large crustacean, but he now had to admit that the resemblance was rather weak.

Whilst he moved his thumbs back and forth with idle amusement, Karkat approached the second eldest of his three little ovens, which, unlike the other two, was still burning. After he had knelt down before it, he pulled open its door and narrowed his eyes as the warm, waterless air within wafted out and washed over him. His mouth began to moisten as he identified each of the distinct aromas that flooded his nostrils: the sweet scent of puff pastry, followed by the tartness of cherries, then a hint of roasted almonds and vanilla. It was delightful.

Upon opening his eyes, the contented expression that Karkat bore faded and was replaced with a slight frown. Though the pie that rested upon the topmost shelf of the oven smelt excellent, he could see that its crust was not yet a suitable golden brown. In fact, it was about two thirds of a shade too pale, which was a difference that, in all likelihood, would not have concerned even some of the most conscientious of cooks. Karkat, however, noticed, and he closed the oven door once more with a disgruntled sigh.

 _Two more minutes ought to do it,_ he thought as he rose to his feet and reached for the timer. _You'll get the damn timing just right_ one _day._

Once the timer had been set, Karkat turned around, walked towards the hunger trunk and opened it. It was not long before he had managed to locate the bowl of homemade whipped cream for which he was searching, removing it from the appliance with a swift yet precise motion. As he made a start on the cling film that kept the fluffy, white garnish preserved, he paused to readjust the crude sketch of his lusus that was fastened to the front of the fridge. He had created the masterpiece when he had been just two sweeps old, and it was the one thing from that embarrassing period of his life that he could not bring himself to discard.

Karkat sighed again. Though he was a tad sad that his lusus was going to be back rather late, he was glad that he would be able to eat a piece of pie in peace without the creature bringing any dead, bloodied animals back to the hive. He grabbed a bag of icing sugar from atop the hunger trunk, spun around and returned to the counter.

 _One and a half minutes,_ he thought as he glanced at the timer, before glancing at the sky through the open window in front of him. _At least you managed to get it done before sunrise this ti—_

It was then that he noticed the hulking shape out in the lawnring that was lumbering towards him.

Karkat froze, a feeling more unpleasant and nauseating than any that he had ever known welling up in the pit of his stomach. The first thought that occurred to him was that attacks by feral lusii on trolls in their hives were supposed to be quite rare. The second was that this fact did not do much to help the situation. The third was that he should ready himself for a fight, and the fourth was that he had left his trusty sickle in his respiteblock like a fool. The fifth through eighth were all rather obscene.

 _Oh, fuck,_ he thought, wanting to punch himself. _You utter fucking moron. Of all the nights to not keep your weapon on you, you pick the one something comes to break into your hive and your lusus isn't here. Now what the fuck are you going to do? Run next-door? Those sacks of shit aren't going to help you. Oh, fuck, fuck, fu—_

He stopped when he saw the blood.

It was a bright, sickening shade of red—which lacked a position upon the haemospectrum—and was falling from the figure in buckets. Glistening in the moonlight, it formed a fresh, distorted trail that veered off to another area of the lawnring and led away from the hive. As the figure slumped to the ground after a short while, Karkat swallowed. His heart began to beat faster than he believed was possible. Besides himself, there was just one significant creature of which he knew that had that abnormal colour flowing through its veins.

He did not remember discarding what he was holding at any point, but Karkat noted that his hands were empty by the time that he found himself sprinting through the backdoor of the hive, and he would later return to find the mealblock floor covered in icing sugar, whipped cream and broken glass. He charged through the night with no regard for the noise of his strides, all feelings of fear vanishing from his mind. His sole concerns were what lay in his lawnring and whether or not it was still alive.

Mere moments later, Karkat had grown close to the enigmatic beast, which was resting in a red puddle upon the grass just a short distance ahead of him. He accelerated and closed the gap between it and himself in an instant. As he beheld it, he almost lost control of his muscles, and it became difficult for him to breathe. It was his lusus, lying silent and motionless. Its limbs were limp and arranged at awkward, unnatural angles. Large holes and cracks, from which oozed an extreme amount of blood, covered almost every square centimetre of its exoskeleton. Its jaws hung open, devoid of breath, and its four eyes, glassy and unseeing, were pointed towards the stars.

Karkat knelt down next to the lifeless body and began to tremble. His chest grew tighter by the second, and he did his best to keep breathing in the midst of chokes, sobs and unintelligible strings of expletives. He could not believe that this was real. He did not believe that this was happening. As he lifted a hand and moved to place it upon the creature, he thought, _He'll wake up. He has to._

It was at this moment that Karkat realised that he was not like the other young trolls, nor was he like anyone else in the current iteration of the multiverse, for that matter. As his finger came into contact with the still-warm carapace of his lusus, he felt a feeling unlike any that he had ever felt before. An almost electric sensation began in the fingertip that had touched the corpse, and it shot through the rest of his body posthaste, making his skin prickle with warmth and prompting his hairs to stand on end. He recoiled, grasping his hand in shock, and his eyes grew wide as a bright pulse of crimson light rippled outwards from the point where his finger had just been, enveloping the entirety of the carcass and disappearing almost as soon as it had come bursting into existence.

The dead body started to stir as Karkat stood up once more and took a large step backwards. He watched in petrified silence as the limbs of his lusus made an attempt to correct themselves and its eyes flitted back to life. He stared as the cracks in its shell stopped leaking blood and its torso began to rise and fall with the steady intake and output of breath. After several seconds, it had managed to stand itself up on its crooked hind legs, and it met his stare, cocking its head somewhat and letting out perplexed chirp.

"You… Y-you're alive," said Karkat after a few seconds, mouth agape. As tears proceeded to cascade down his cheeks with greater frequency than before, he cupped his hands over his mouth and nose and began to break down. "Oh, m-my fucking god, y-you're alive." Chest heaving, he removed his shaking hands from his face and looked down at them, a tempest of emotions tearing its way through him. He looked up again, his voice becoming hushed. "What the hell did I just do?"

In spite of the question, Karkat already had a pretty accurate idea of what the hell it was that he had just done. He could touch dead things and bring them back to life. This rather special touch was a fantastic gift that had been given to him, but not by anyone in particular. In the future, as sweeps passed, some would theorise that it was a result of his unique genetic mutation, and others would say that is was due to the mythological role that he had played in another life. However, the true answer, assuming that one even existed, would remain forever unknown. The gift had come with no box, no instructions and no warranty; it just was. At the moment that Karkat had brought his lusus back to life, the terms of use were not clear, nor were they of immediate concern.

The undead custodian let out a loud, sharp cry as it focused its attention towards the far end of the lawnring. Karkat refrained from further rumination, lowered his red, tear-stained hands and whirled around to follow its gaze. It was not long before he managed to spot another large figure making its way towards the two of them. His chest tightened and his weeps ceased altogether. He considered running back inside, but he doubted that his lusus would be able to follow him in its current crippled state.

As the unfamiliar, shadowy figure advanced, it became apparent that it was quadrupedal. Each of the steady, deliberate strides that it took seemed to last for an eternity, and it made almost no sound whatsoever as its extremities made contact with the earth. From the end of its spine protruded a long, slender tail that drooped down and skimmed over the tips of the blades of grass beneath it, flicking every so often like a rapacious serpent. Its green eyes glinted in the moonlight as it crawled along the ground, following the trail of blood that was soaking into the soil straight towards the creature that had spilt it. The ears atop its head, the shape of its face and the presence of whiskers upon its cheeks gave away the fact that it was a large cat of some description, as did the loud hiss that it released as Karkat placed himself between it and his lusus.

Adrenaline coursing through him, Karkat adopted an aggressive stance. He was prepared to defend his lusus from the newcomer by any means necessary. He would allow no more harm to befall it that night. As the beast grew even closer, he could see that its front paws and claws were covered with bright red blood. He snarled, prompting the animal to mirror the expression, revealing that its sharp fangs were also coated with incriminating crimson. Clenching his fists, Karkat stepped forth.

It was then that the cooking timer chimed from within the mealblock, and, as the crust of the cherry-almond pie in the oven became the perfect shade of bronze, the ferocious feline dropped dead.

⁂

Nepeta Leijon was just five sweeps, ten days, twenty hours and five minutes old when her lusus died.

The night upon which the tragic event occurred had not been ordinary in the slightest. The sky was somewhat overcast, the air was still and the two moons of Alternia possessed enough gibbosity to facilitate adequate vision. As dawn had approached the quiet, suburban district of Fée de Fer, however, so had Nepeta, having originated from the nearby woodland in pursuit of her lusus. The majority of local young trolls, who were preoccupied with preparing to go to sleep for the day, were all inside their hives. The result was that Nepeta had managed to travel deep into the heart of the neighbourhood and search for her pesky custodian without being noticed.

In all, the experience had been rather overwhelming. Although the dwelling in which Nepeta lived was not situated that far away from civilisation, travelling into more populated regions was something that she did neither often nor without an express purpose. As she made her way past the collection of dismal-looking hives that surrounded her, sweet thoughts of her kindhearted and compassionate lusus drifted through her head like fallen blossoms upon a pellucid pond. Not a single interaction between her and another troll had ever occurred without her custodian being present beside her, which, she supposed, was why she had developed such a fondness for communicating with others via chat clients. After all, it was much easier to talk to someone by oneself when they were on the other side of a computer screen. Had she returned to her hive earlier that night rather than gone for a cheeky, early-morning hunt, Nepeta would no doubt have been bombarding a random member of her ChumpRoll with roleplay or romantic advice—or perhaps both—at that very moment.

With a short, stifled yawn, Nepeta stretched, rubbed her eyes and allowed her nectarous mind to clear. She was soon pulled out of the brief period of tranquillity, however, by the soft, low-pitched and repeating sound of something that was moving at a brisk pace across the ground. A slight frown appeared upon her face. She span several degrees to her left and examined the dishevelled, imposing hive that was situated in front of her, noticing that the lights within it were still switched on.

Once she had confirmed that the lawnring was clear and the front door was closed, Nepeta looked up at the extraterraneal landing slats of the hive and the awnings that adorned them, which were bright red in colour, scanning for any signs of movement. When she had been younger, she had always liked to fantasise about hunting unsuspecting prey in environments other than the wilderness, and she now realised that her wish may have been coming true.

Whilst she readied her claws with eager anxiety, Nepeta approached the hive and began to make her way about its lawnring. Listening out for further footsteps, she soon heard a shrill, repetitive beeping noise echo through the night, which prompted her to quicken her movement and press up against the nearby wall. After she had almost made her way to the other side of the building, she peered around the final corner and narrowed her eyes as she spotted a figure lying upon the grass not far ahead of her. Her mouth began to curve into a smile as she identified it. The ears atop its head, the shape of its face and the presence of whiskers upon its cheeks gave away the fact that it was a large cat of some description—her lusus, to be more specific. She had never been more relieved.

Upon moving towards her custodian, the relaxed expression that Nepeta bore faded and was replaced with a look of absolute horror. The beast was not moving. The position of its body gave away the fact that it was not just resting or lying in wait. In fact, there was a limpness about its limbs that suggested a lack of consciousness, which was a detail that, in all likelihood, would not have been detected by the majority of young trolls. Nepeta, however, noticed, and she began to close the gap between her and her lusus with a cry of distress.

"Pounce!" she yelled as she sprinted forth. "Pounce, are you okay?!"

Once she had grown close to the motionless body, Nepeta knelt down next to it, her green eyes wide and glinting in the moonlight. Her chest grew tighter by the second, and she did her best to keep breathing as her heart started to beat with a frightening level of force and frequency. She could not believe that this was real. She did not believe that this was happening. As she lifted a hand and moved to place it upon the creature, she thought, _She'll wake up. She has to._

"Pounce, please…" She rested her palm against the flank of her lusus, feeling for the rise and fall of breath. There was nothing. She moved her hand and placed two of her fingers against the inside of one of its hind legs, feeling for a pulse. Again, there was nothing. The animal was dead, and it possessed not a single wound or injury to show for it.

"Don't do this to me," begged Nepeta, teardrops streaking down her cheeks and colouring them olive green. As she sunk her face into the still-warm neck fur of her custodian, she sobbed. "Please, just… Can… W-what happened to you?" She sat up and looked into the pair of sightless eyes that had been brimming with life just mere minutes before. "You, you can't b-be dea—"

"Nepeta?"

Registering that someone had said her name took a considerable length of time, but Nepeta soon stopped, raised her head and turned around. A figure was standing just a few metres away. It was a troll, to judge from the small pair of horns that protruded from its head, and they had begun to approach her, moving towards her with slow, silent and steady paces. As they did so, another, larger figure came into view beside them. The troll made a gesture, however, and the creature stopped, standing upon its contorted hind legs as its master continued to grow closer to Nepeta. In a panicked rush, she wiped away the tears from her eyes, providing herself with a better view of the stranger. Her eyes widened once she took in their appearance and recognised them.

"Karkat?"

Nepeta rose to her feet and took a step backwards. As she stared in disbelief at the boy who stood before her, a torrent of assorted emotions rushing through her mind, she swallowed. It was hard for her to accept that he was indeed there. Though she had entertained the notion that he lived in a nearby district several times in the past, she had never expected to run into him quite so close to her own hive. Her mind filled with regret as she thought about the fact that she had never been able to work up the courage to ask him about his address. At any other time, she would have loved to visit him in real life and see his hive as she had always wanted to do, but, at that moment, she found it difficult to be excited.

As she shifted her attention from Karkat to the familiar creature that stood by his side, Nepeta grew even more astonished. It was covered in blood, which was a similar shade of red to that of the great beasts that Nepeta enjoyed to hunt. She often refused to listen whenever her moirail attempted to lecture her on blood castes, but she had picked up enough to understand that the colour could not have been normal for a troll and their lusus.

"Is that…" began Nepeta in a quiet voice, pointing towards the bipedal crustacean. "Is that your lusus?"

"Nepeta, please," said Karkat as he looked around in fear, his voice full of panic, "whatever you do, keep quiet. Just… Fuck, I know it seems weird but listen to me. This… this isn't my lusus, it's just… a pet. My blood doesn't look like its blood, I swear. My blood isn—"

The oliveblood took a step forwards. "It's alive."

"Yeah," said Karkat, chest heaving. "Yeah, it was injured but now it's fine. I… I helped it. All of this blood came from it, not me. Honestly, I've just been keeping it for fun. Found it in the woods."

"I thought it would be dead," said Nepeta.

Karkat took a step away from her. "What do you mean?"

She turned to him and began to break down. "I-I'm sorry, Karkat. I was out hunting earlier with… with…" she turned back to her dead lusus and wiped her eyes. "I was with P-Pounce in the forest not too far from here. We were looking for food when I… I heard something. It sounded like something screeching. We followed the noise until we found… _that_." She pointed at his lusus once more. "It was in a clearing and it… it… Karkat, it was being attacked. There was another troll there—a blueblood—and her lusus was just… attacking it. Sh-she was laughing and saying that it was a freak and its troll deserved to be culled. She wasn't even trying to kill it. She was just…"

Karkat watched in silence as Nepeta held her hand to her mouth. He thought of reaching out and comforting her, but he feared what the consequences might be if he touched her. She soon knelt back down next to the corpse of her custodian.

"When she noticed me," she continued after a while, "she told me to… She said that I should 'enjoy the show'. I don't know why, but before I could say anything, Pounce jumped in, dragged your… pet away and attacked the other lusus. Its troll… She wanted me to get Pounce to stop, but I couldn't. I tried, really, but I couldn't, so she… attacked me. I, I managed to fight back—even cut her face open with my claws—and she and her lusus ran off. Pounce wasn't hurt, but I wasn't sure, so I ran over to see if… she was okay. By the time I'd helped her and cleaned myself up, I… I realised that your… pet had gone… I didn't know where it went, but Pounce followed its trail into this place, and I tried to follow her. I, I couldn't really keep up with her, but… I eventually got here."

Wordless, Karkat knelt down next to her. As their eyes met, he opened his mouth to say something.

"How did she die?" she asked without warning. "You must have been here. Tell me, how did she die?"

By this moment, Karkat had begun to suspect that his gift that was came with a caveat or two, and he was correct. It was a gift that not only gave; it took. He could only bring the dead back for one minute without consequence. Any longer, and someone or something else had to die. In the grand, universal scheme of things, Karkat had traded the life of his lusus for that of Pounce de Leon. He could not bring himself, however, to let Nepeta know, and he doubted that she would believe him even if he told her the truth.

So he lied.

"I…" he began. "I don't know. She was just standing there, and then she just… collapsed. I'm sorry, but there was nothing I could do."

As Nepeta started to stroke the pelt of her lusus, Karkat considered the possibility that there was indeed something that he could have done and could still do: touch the creature and bring it back to life. For all that he knew, however, doing so could cause his lusus to die once again, and he had no idea if he would be able to revive it. The exact workings of his powers had not yet made themselves known to him, and it was not a risk that he was willing to take.

"It's not your fault," said Nepeta, looking back up at Karkat and giving him a fraction of a smile. The words pierced him like a thousand pikes. "That lusus she was fighting… Maybe it poisoned her or something. It did look a bit… bug-like. Maybe I just didn't notice the bite. It was dark and I thought she'd let me know if something was wrong and…"

She trailed off and stared at the ground. Several minutes passed before either of them spoke again. "I had no idea you were… different," said Nepeta as she observed the crimson splotches upon the grass and soil. "Your blood, I mean. I always guessed you were the same as Aradia…" Ignoring Karkat as he attempted to object, she nodded towards his custodian. "And I know he's your lusus. I've hunted in these woods for my entire life, and I've never seen a creature like him. He can't be wild. I, I think the reason my lusus wanted to help him is because… well, she knew he was yours. I think… I think she remembered your scent from when we all met at Tavros' that time… It's probably a special smell."

"That was ages ago," said Karkat after a while. "Hell, I'd forgotten about that. That was how we found out about his allergies, right?"

Nepeta giggled. "Yeah, I think it was."

Karkat let out a sigh and stared at the grass beneath them. "Please don't let anyone know," he said. "Don't tell anyone about my blood. If any of the arseholes around here found out… I'd be culled in five minutes."

"Don't worry about it," she said. "I've never really cared about any of that sort of stuff. Equius keeps on trying to get me to learn about the haemospectrum and everything, but…" She gave him a reassuring smile. "Listen, I wouldn't care if your blood was black, white or even, like, transparent or something! You'd still be the same Karkat. That's all that matters to me."

"Thanks." He smiled in return, before adopting a more earnest countenance. "So… what are you going to do now?"

Her smile disappeared. "I… don't really know…" Her face then lit up. "Actually, no, could I use your computer? I… I really think I should let Equius know about this. Honestly, I think he'll probably insist I move in with him. That's… probably what I'll end up doing."

"My computer's having technical difficulties right now," said Karkat through gritted teeth, "but I guess you can still come in if you want. I've just made pie. It might be a bit burnt because I'm honestly a fucking terrible cook, but it should at least be edible. I don't think I'm that incompetent."

Nepeta prepared to reply, but she faltered. Her cheeks flushed green. After waiting for a moment, she made a second attempt. "You, um… You bake?"

Karkat exhibited an unwitting simper, his own cheeks flushing red. "I… Oh, why the fuck did I just say that." He buried his burning face in his hands. "God, I'm an idiot. I'm an absolute fucking moron. Listen, just forget I said anything, okay?"

"Karkat, that's so adorable!" said Nepeta, still blushing. "I'd really love to try what you've made. Oh, I know! Purrhaps I could bring my tea set around and we could have a tea party! Wouldn't that be great?" She stopped beaming and sighed. "But right now, I… I just want to go back to my hive. I'll message Equius when I get back, and then I'll get ready to go to his. I can fend and hunt for myself and everything but… I don't want to be living in that cave all by myself."

She rose to her feet, and Karkat, after some hesitation, followed suit. They each took a few steps away from the body of her lusus, looking at it in silence.

"Are you going to leave her here?" asked Karkat after a few seconds.

"Yeah," replied Nepeta, tears welling up in the corners of her eyes once more, "she'll be finished off by the end of the day. It's what she would have wanted: a proper hunter's death."

"I guess this is goodbye, then," said Karkat. He turned to her. "Nepeta, I… I'm sorry for everything. I've really fucked things up and—"

"Don't say that!" exclaimed Nepeta. "You didn't have anything to do with anything! I should have just…" She glanced at his lusus. "Please make sure your lusus is okay, all right?" She stepped towards him, giving him an affectionate look. "And don't try to take the blame for anything. You're… You're always too hard on yourself."

In a move that she would later ascribe to a combination of rampant hormones and grief, Nepeta leant forwards and gave Karkat a brief kiss on the lips. He neither resisted nor reciprocated. Any emotions—positive or negative—that the kiss would have stirred within him were drowned out by the sickening feeling of guilt that permeated the entirety of his body. He almost failed to register that it was even taking place.

Upon pulling away, her face greener than it had ever been in her entire life, Nepeta turned around and began to hurry off. Without looking back, she lifted her hand. "B-bye, Karkat!"

After he had watched Nepeta vanish into the night with great speed, not returning her goodbye, Karkat turned around and started to make his way back to his hive. He did his best not to look at the feline carcass that lay in his lawnring as he followed his lusus back into the mealblock. Once he had shut the door behind him, he let out a deep sigh and closed his eyes. Upon opening them again, he could see that his lusus was watching him with a look of confusion and concern. It let out a soft squeak and moved closer to him, prompting him to reach out and console it.

However, there was one more thing about touching dead things that Karkat did not know, and he learnt it in the most unfortunate way. As he placed a gentle hand upon the now-cold carapace of his custodian, he felt a feeling unlike any that he had ever felt before. An icy sensation began in the palm that had touched the creature, seeping through the rest of his body forthwith. His skin prickled with cold and his hairs stood on end as a dim, cerulean light enveloped his lusus. It converged upon the point where his hand was as if it were being sucked into him, and, once the light had disappeared, his lusus dropped to the floor, silent and motionless.

"No!" cried Karkat as he dropped to his knees, horrified. He touched the fallen creature with a trembling hand. When nothing happened, his panic transformed into sheer, unbridled rage. "No! No, this isn't fucking fair!" He proceeded to tap his lusus numerous times in rapid succession. "G-get up!"

Karkat remained by the side of his lusus for several hours, his futile touches growing more infrequent as despondence took the place of desperation. By the time that the harsh light of the sun had begun to pour in through the mealblock window, he had given up. He had come to terms with the final, terrible rule of his gift: whilst one of his touches would give life to the deceased, any more would take it away forever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I hope that you enjoyed that! The next chapter should be up quite soon; it's already halfway done, and I'm almost certain that no future chapters will be quite as long as this one.
> 
> Until next time,  
> ~ Georgie


End file.
